Artful Homemade Quilts Have A Way

[freedombecki]

They're wonderful. I love what we refer to as "Controlled" Postage stamp quilts. Unlike the lacksadaisical (but absolutely wonderful) one-patch quilt that looks like someone blindfolded theselves and started reaching into the bucket of tiny squares, sewing together in the order they randomly picked squares, the controlled postage stamp goes by a pattern. I'm showing three below for the edification of those who are interested in learning some of the peculiarities of our mothers' (and some fathers') astonishing combinations. One of the prettiest ones you'll ever see is on Georgia Bonesteel's cover (and how tos inside) of a controlled postage stamp quilt. Sometime this week, I'll try to locate one with its cover intact.The nae of her book is "Bright Ideas for Lap Quilting." (if memory serves me right). Mine may still be packed away somewhere, and my printer is still on the bum, so I couldn't show you even if I had it in my quilt-loving little hands.

Anyway, here are three examples of controlled postage stamp quilts I found on ebay this morning. If you are a collecter, you just can't go wrong on this type of quilt. In the first place, the only way people can appreciate a postage stamp quilt is to take 1296 different small squares of 1.5" cloth, sew them together 36x36, and you will have a square yard of fabric if your quilter's quarter inch is true on your sewing machine. If it isn't, you need to clean up your act by measuring 9 pieces sewn together in a small square. That will tell you what kind of alteration you need to make on your quarter inch seam allowance. Also, if you worked in a factory ever, you may have a real bee up your butt about not using pins, since almost every factory has gotten away from pinning. Sorry, you just need pins to do tiny squares unless you have 95 years of experience in sewing and wisdom from on high. Use Swiss silk pins. I forgot the name of the company (INOX?), but a good quilt store worth its salt will carry them if the company is still in business.

I just love controlled postage stamp quilts. Here are some below:

 

[freedombecki]

OK, I couldn't resist. I went and found Georgia Bonesteel's book, Bright Ideas for Lap Quilting at Georgia Bonesteel dot com. If you want one of the best quilting books of all time, one in the top 100 this is one of them. I have at least 2 copies, and I just linked to where you can get one of the last new copies for less than half price sale today (I don't know who sells what or how long it lasts. I gathered it ends when the last copy is outta there). No telling how many printings she did. When I was in business, the cover of this book just sold itself. Not everyone will try a postage stamp quilt, but if you could do just one Gone With the Wind, this would be a good one. The one on her cover may have been done by a large group of her students/aficionados. It's been a while since I browsed through the book. In fact, if of the thousands of books I have on quilting, and I could only keep 10 of them, I'd want this one just for the joy and pleasure of looking at this exquisite quilt. I'm sorry the picture transferred so poorly. If you want to see how truly beautiful it is, get the book. Of course, if you want to have some serious fun under the quilt, you'll have to make your own quilt.

On second thought, that could take a couple of years if you're a dedicated procrastinator.

 

[freedombecki]

Choosing what quilt you like is truly a subjective sport. I have to say of all the quilts I perused online looking for something good to show this am, I just kind of fell in love with this quilt that I found someone selling at ebay. She (or he) was good enough to show a lot of closeups, which include a collector's nirvana of a quilt having a Prairie Point border. Also someone from Massachusetts would truly love the name of the controlled arrangement it was designed to be, a "Boston Commons" quilt. It is furthermore made valuable because it is a quilt constructed in the 1940s, and those prints will never again be available unless a fabric company takes the quilt, and does a 1,000 piece line of the fabrics in it, which could sink a company or set its sails for a very profitable life if others went apes over 40s, particularly key teachers. Nah, ain't gonna happen. Those were war years. Maybe that's why women did complex quilts then, to get them through the long, lonely nights while their man was at war. There were some pretty fabrics printed in the 40s. The only trouble was, most of the nation's focus was going into making uniforms for soldiers, and unlike today, you couldn't have 99k choices as you do when you go on ebay and load "red quilt fabric" into the browser there to make that gorgeous work.

Oh, yeah. Boston Commons. There are a lot more closeups , I only saved a few of them. This quilt is to be totally enjoyed. *sigh*

 

[freedombecki]

More closeups of the Boston Commons Postage Stamp quilt:
(I had a space left over in Managed Attachments, so the last one is just one I whipped up for the center of an otherwise bland little charity quilt a few months back, already delivered)

 

[freedombecki]

Oh, yes Credits: Trocadero Antiques Sorry it was sold already if you're a collector. You'll have to make your own.
Really pretty 1880s Lancaster, PA postage stamp quilt. Unique property: lattice center on point.

Just browsing this evening. I decided to mow the field today, so not much got done on the little other quilt, except I cut the final strips to get one 1.75" square from each one that finishes to 1.25"

 

[freedombecki]

It was cheaper to buy a new printer than to fix the old one. I got a Canon PIXMA mg 2120 for $29 at Wallyworld, and guess what! You don't have to fiddle with "refining" and you just push a button and save your scan. It doesn't take 95 seconds to load, either.

I be show-and-telling soon.

Test:

 

[freedombecki]

This top is by no means finished. Each side of 16x8=128 squares is taking several hours to assemble and attach. I haven't been able to work much when I can't sleep, due to economy worries and losing my allergy medicine and itching all the time. I just got my medicine refilled today, so tonight I will be sawing logs. Hopefully, this one will be finished sometime before midnight!

 

[Foxfyre]

Your knowledge of quilts is amazing Becki, and you demonstrate what a good person you are by all the quilts you make for the benefit of others.

It has probably already been posted, but are you aware of the national quilt project for HIV/AIDS?

yes, the lady in the photo is Laura Bush who continues to actively work in the fight against AIDS. She writes in reference to the quilt:

Today I visited the AIDS Memorial Quilt, which was started to honor the 600,000 Americans who have lost their lives to HIV/AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic. The Quilt now 48,000 panels, representing more than 94,000 individuals who lost their lives to AIDS.

As you can see there are many panels that will be added to the ones already on the fence. Laura further writes today:

In 1988, a lone panel was delivered quietly to the NAMES Project Foundation. Unlike any other panel submitted before or since, it arrived simply with a handwritten note that read: “I hope this quilt will find a permanent place and help mark the end of this devastating disease.” The panel itself simply said “The Last One”...

 

[freedombecki]

Thank you for sharing the HIV quilt that raised so much awareness about the AIDs/HIV virus which took the world by horrific surprise and America appeared as an unknown infection that destroyed the immunity systems of people in 2 communities--the Gay community, and the drug community that used shoot-up needles for quick delivery, and any babies born to mothers who tested positive for HIV. I have shared the quilt many times, but it was such a long time ago, I haven't kept up with it a lot in recent years. Seems last time I read on it it was the size of several football fields, in who know how many divisions.

When people began to delve into the problems of the disease, and in trying to combat it, they found close cures to several types of cancers, so we owe a lot to those who died before the panaceas for living with the disease a near-normal life were found.

May someday there be a total cure to rid humanity (and Rhesus monkeys) of this and related diseases that kill people in less than 90 days sometimes.

 

[freedombecki]

Finally, here's the last border on the quilt I was working on above. It measures 47 x 63" and will fit a cot. Another goodly border could kick up the size to a twin bed if the Charity bees so choose.

Oh, my, I've lost a couple of days. I just wrote the 28th on the label when today may be a different date than that. My computer says it is the 26th. Who knows?

 

[freedombecki]

I can't believe I did all that work on that quilt for the last week, when I got up and finished a similar one in 5 hours this morning. Fortunately, I found a long string of pieces from a quilt I had made years before in a sealed box. I just took the long string, made a top and bottom row of scrappy rectangles aorund one of the stars I made last year, and a few borders. First thing you know, it was a finished quilt. I guess the problem with the other quilt was the light green fabric I was just dying to use. I had to piece each square and attach it to a 42" length strip of the green, cut apart, press open, and sew. There were over 500 pieces when all was said and done, and they took 4 days, period. Oh, well, I've never made a flatter quilt that pressed out so nicely as that quilt, and it was pleasing to work with. This one was pleasing because it took a fraction of the time I spent on the other and it measures 42x56, which is a perfect size for a toddler to about a fifth grader. That's good for 8 years, 10 years if you count from birth.

I had the most beautiful piece of yellows in the recent box that had a hundred yards of cotton quilter's materials in it, and it had little peach-colored roses and buds on it with limey green leaves and stems. When you touched the cotton, it felt so good and sturdy. It was only about 40" wide, however, but who cares when a fabric is beautiful, good, AND sturdy to boot. I paired it with the scrappy border surrounded on each side by limey green material with a tiny aqua motif closely packed that popped the leaves on the roses and a golden yellow scroll material designed by Basic Grey designers, famed for their calligraphy papers, now designing for Moda Fabrics, Inc. I absolutely love this little quilt and will share pictures below. It was a stroke of luck I found those old leftover scraps that were sewn together all around. It's so nice to sandwich unknowns together in a border and not have to worry about matching everything, because since it's been at least 5 years since all those scraps were put together, it's integrity is history! hahaha! So here's the Golden Oldie:

 

[freedombecki]

And the irregular scraps from a scrappy Irish chain quilt sewn together in a long chain then bordered, the star center, and a side shot of 2 star points with borders:

 

[freedombecki]

This morning's work was completing the never-finished American coins quilt. It was originally called Chinese Coins, but in red white and blue, and a border that pops with firecrackers stars and hearts, it's American as apple pie, thus the name, "American Coins."

Sew happy to present it, too:

 

[freedombecki]

Not much news. I finished 40 squares for a small quilt for the shelter yesterday, but haven't sewn them together. 5x8, the squares are 8", so the size before sashing would be 5x8= 40 - seam allowances (2.5", to make 37.5") and length 8x8=64 - 3.5 = 60.5" length. before seam allowances. I should just do it!

I did finish a Senior pillow sham but ran out of stuffing for the support pillow. I have more if I can find it.

Win some, lose some.

And the Senior pillow (a churn dash) shown partially below, front and back:

 

[freedombecki]

The pink and jade (turquoise a little to the green) quilt had such hot colors, I thought it might be nice to pick a couple of pretty fabrics to match.

All the pinks brought from Wyoming were either already used up or more bubblegum pink than raspberry pink like the fabric used.

So here's the Charm Windmill Quilt in pink and jade collaboration of colors. I bought a backup sash-and-set fabric, but I already had the awesome dark green modern mistletoe fabric and found a few colors to use as sets and the two borders:

 

[freedombecki]

Some more charm windmill squares to go into this quilt top:

 

[freedombecki]

Two of the fabrics weren't shown above, and they're the ones that made the final cut for the border, so with not much ado, Here are the results of this finished work. I have been working away at this each day and it was painstaking, yes, but ever so pleasant to one who likes a little busy in quilts that would otherwise be mundane to do. Here's what two zany border fabrics (scans 1 and 2) can do to lift rather mundane small blocks into a quilt for a one of God's own shelter kids.

 

[freedombecki]

The reason a change had to be made was because the brilliant lime and yellow stripe did not rock any foundations when bordering the green; there was a dearth of the raspberry bubble-stripe, so it couldn't be laid lengthwise and used with the brilliant lime and yellow stripe. The raspberry picked up well between differing lifesaver circles on the white ground, and its selfsame print on black just made me smile. That's how subjective visuals may be gauged--do they draw a response of cheer, shock, grief, opposition, or agreement? The more yes checks, chances are your subjective choices were good for you. My grandfather said, "If you try something, just remember, your judgment is every bit as good as someone elses' so go with it." He accepted no excuses for lack of vision, although he had this giant charming heart in him--always encouraging a leap and bound rather than a timidly executed tiptoe.

One afterthought--no expenditure of 80 hours on this little top was ever planned, it just happened. It measures about 58 by 72" give or take a couple of inches. Hopefully, the quilt would get a young person from 5th grade through 4 years of college. With care, it could be saved for a future child, but chances are, it'd be pretty worn by then, because kids do not know quilt care unless taught respect at an early age and expected to take care of their own property.

 

[freedombecki]

Brick red quilt day. These bricks have been cut out for several months now. The ebay fabrics that arrived a couple of weeks ago had this odd little beige fabric with blue ditzies all over it. There were 2 yards, which seemed to be perfect as mortar between the red bricks.

So far, so good:

 

[freedombecki]

Brick red quilt finished at 11 am! Yay! I'm free!